Well-Drillers, Dogs and Mailmen....Oh My!!

What a bunch of distractions we had today! After having the last 3 days off, I knew that it would be wise to lounge Ben before I rode him. Good choice! He was nuts! Granted the neighboring dogs were barking up a storm from the moment we walked down the driveway. But they also got worse every time the mailman or UPS truck drove by. Plus the neighbor across the street is having a well drilled, so that created constant noise as well. Ben was all out of sorts and acting as crazy as ever. At one point while lounging him to the right he spun around and started going the opposite direction. This is a HUGE misbehaviour in lounging and totally unacceptable. It makes the handler not in control for a few moments until they can stop the horse and correct them in going back in the right direction. A couple of times Ben also kicked out at me, which seemed very intentional. Needless to say, I didn't feel like riding him much today and instead schooled him on the lounge line for the majority of the time. Once he was settled down a bit I got on him and rode for about 20 minutes. I put him through all of the gaits, but he was still really strong especially in the canter. So we did lots of square turns and I used lots of half-halts. Maybe it's all the great weather we've been having, since Ben was definitely feeling frisky today. Hopefully he's gotten it all of his system since I have a lesson on Wednesday and I really don't want him to misbehave for it.